Institute News

Director of the Institute for Energy Efficiency, John Bowers, is Onward California's first featured story. John discusses our many areas of expertise at the Institute and UCSB, the importance of energy efficiency, and the global impact of our work in a series of four videos.

The Institute for Energy Efficiency and the CEEM hosted a Technology Roundtable on concentrator photovoltaics. 35 key stakeholders participated in a facilitated discussion to identify what it will take for CPV to supply 100 GW of solar electricity in the US by 2030.

In this Issue: News about Jeff and Judy Henley's lead gift; Announcement of architectural firm selection for new building; News on our 2012 Technology Roundtable on CPV; Exciting breakthroughs in research; and faculty members' presentations from the National Academy of Engineering Symposium.

We are pleased to announce the selection of architectural firm KieranTimberlake to design a new home for the Institute. The building will be named Henley Hall in honor of Jeff and Judy Henley's lead gift, and will be a symbol of the Institute and UC Santa Barbara's commitment to energy efficiency.

Institute faculty member Shuji Nakamura and his research group have developed the first violet nonpolar vertical-cavity laser. This breakthrough opens doors to higher efficiency lasers with reduced manufacturing costs.

James Speck, a professor of materials at UCSB, member of SSLEC's Executive Committee, and director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Wide Band-Gap Semiconductors, has been named the campus's first Seoul Optodevice Chair in Solid State Lighting.

Oracle Chairman’s $50 Million Gift to the Institute and College of Engineering at UC Santa Barbara Supports Technology Innovation and Advances the Frontiers of Energy Efficiency. Read the full press release here.

In this Issue: New Report from our Technology Roundtable on Energy Efficient Data Centers; Institute faculty member Stephen DenBaars elected to the National Academy of Engineering; Exciting breakthrough in "small molecule" organic photovoltaics research; Coverage of Amory Lovins' Seminar, and more.

UC Santa Barbara researchers set efficiency records through a new method of producing organic solar cell materials. Two faculty members in the Institute's Production & Storage Solutions Group, Guillermo Bazan and Alan Heeger, explained their breakthrough in a recent paper in Nature Materials

UC Santa Barbara’s Institute for Energy Efficiency and the Kavli Foundation announce a Report that identifies four issues that must be addressed to improve data center energy efficiency through strategic partnerships between academia and industry.

The sixth of nine new manufacturing institutes brings $610 million in public-private investment to next-generation photonics manufacturing, fostering American manufacturing innovation to transform digital communications and high-performance computing

GaN-based solar cells for integration to multi-junction photovoltaics could raise concentrated photovoltaic system efficiencies to more than 50%. UC Santa Barbara researchers are some of those designing the devices.

A team of students from UC Santa Barbara's Department of Film and Media Studies are seeking to provide a secondary light source to the people of Macha in the form of high-efficiency, solar-powered LED lamps developed by John Bowers, director of the Institute for Energy Efficiency.

Institute faculty member Shuji Nakamura enabled an entire industry based on high-brightness LEDs by developing a practical way to manufacture efficient blue and ultraviolet LEDs, which are the basis for “white” LEDs.

Unite to Light, a nonprofit co-founded by UCSB Engineering professor and Director of the Institute for Energy Efficiency, John Bowers, will send hundreds of solar-powered LED lights to the Philippines.

Steven DenBaars, a research scientist at UC Santa Barbara, has been working on LED lights for 20 years. In his lab, DenBaars is already onto the next big thing: Replacing a substantial portion of indoor lights, and the archaic bulb and socket infrastructure on which they depend, with lasers.

Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), led by material scientists Kristin Denault and Michael Cantore, have combined laser diodes with inorganic phosphors to create efficient, stable sources of white light

The American Institute of Physics' Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy published commentary discussing the Institute for Energy Efficiency's 2013 Summit on Materials for a Sustainable Energy Future.

Steven Chu spoke at the UC Santa Barbara Summit on Energy Efficiency urging scientists "not to leave their best work in the lab and wait for others to take over commercialization," an article by the Pacific Coast Business Times.

In the latest rankings by Leiden University in the Netherlands, UCSB ranked 2nd on the annual list of the top 500 major universities in the world in terms of impact in the field of the sciences. This represents a jump of five places from last year's annual ranking of the top 500.

CNBC has shared the UCSB press release on the 2013 Summit on Energy Efficiency, to be held on May 1-2 2013. Keynote speakers at the event that is focused on "Materials for a sustainable future" include Steve Chu, Michael McQuade, George Crabtree and Kateri Callahan.

An interdisciplinary team of UCSB students has taken a top prize at the 2013 Better Building Case Competition, part of President Obama's Better Buildings Initiative. Several Institute faculty and graduate students were involved with this team.

"Better [power] conversion means the same work gets done with fewer power lines and power plants, and less environmental impact." An article by the Ventura County Reporter details the energy-saving work done by Institute Faculty Umesh Mishra's company, Transphorm.

In this episode of Lighting the World featured on UCTV, John Bowers of the Institute for Energy Efficiency describes how they are using the highly efficient white LED, discovered by Shuji Nakamura, to address the lack of reliable, economical light sources in many parts of the world.

Institute faculty member and Transphorm CEO, Umesh Mishra, will be presenting at the 2013 IHS CERAWeek as an Energy Innovation Pioneer, as reported by Market Watch. This title is given to forward-looking companies and entrepreneurs who are transforming the energy future.

Galen Stucky, an Institute faculty member, was the lead player in a UCSB research team to win a $1.6 million federal grant to further explore and develop a more user-friendly alternate to the lithium ion batteries.

The DOE's Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy awards UC Santa Barbara $1.6 million to develop an energy storage device for hybrid electric vehicles that combines the properties of capacitors and batteries into one technology.

Transphorm, a company founded by Institute faculty member Umesh Mishra, recieved $35 million from two prominent Japanese companies to help manufacture Transphorm's power devices, including their next generation GaN power devices.

Institute Faculty Member, Umesh Mishra, was awarded the Heinrich Welker Award for “sustained leadership in the development of gallium nitride-based high-power electronics from conception, education to commercialization.”

Shuji Nakamura, the 2006 Millennium Prize winner, along with his colleagues James Speck and Steven DenBaars have created the "first LED on the market to be grown on a GaN substrate." Technology Academy Finland features an article on the researchers' latest LED innovations.

The Smithsonian writes an article on Dan Morse's work on biologically-inspired semiconductors. This radical new approach to creating silicon semiconductors may increase the processing speed of our computers.

Seoul Semiconductor Company launched a new LED product. Institute faculty member Shuji Nakamura is an advisor to Seoul and was there for the unveiling. Also, Seoul Optodevice Company awarded Institute faculty member James Speck a $500,000 endowment for his work in solid-state lighting.

The LA Times features an article on Jeff and Judy Henley's donation to the Institute for Energy Efficiency and the College of Engineering. Their donation will enhance the quality of research and education at UC Santa Barbara, and they hope to set an example for future private giving.

Bloomberg talks about Jeff and Judy Henley's $50 million donation to the Institute for Energy Efficiency and the College of Engineering amid state budget cuts. Their donation is the largest in UC Santa Barbara's history.

UC Santa Barbara-- home to the Institute for Energy Efficiency-- was honored by Southern California Edison and The Climate Registry for its environmental stewardship and for taking action on climate change.

Greentech Media features the Santa Barbara area's leadership in energy efficiency technology, mentioning Institute faculty members Shuji Nakamura and Umesh Mishra: Nakamura for his LED research and Umesh Mishtra for his startup company Transphorm.

Held on Friday, March 4, 2011 in UCSB’s Corwin Pavilion, the 2011 fair brought together over 140 students from across Santa Barbara County competing for over $4,000 in prizes as well as advancement to the California State Science Fair.

Institute faculty member Umesh Mishra's start-up company, Transphorm, has come up with a set of chips that could substantially curb power consumption in computers, electric cars, motors and other appliances.

Institute faculty member Larry Coldren will direct UCSB's new research consortium: Photonic Integration for Coherent Optics (PICO). The new DARPA-funded group will focus on developing photonic technologies for communications and sensing applications.

In collaboration with Institute Director John Bowers, Intel has developed a prototype high-speed optical data link, which is integrated onto silicon. The Silicon Photonics Link supports data transfers at rates of up to 50Gbps, a speed Intel compared to transmitting an entire HD movie every second.

Eucalyptus Systems, a private cloud software vendor founded by Institute faculty member Rich Wolski, recently received $20 million in venture funding. CEO Marten Mickos discusses the influx of funding and the company's two year roadmap.

Michael Grätzel--who recently presented an IEE seminar and is a member of CEEM's Scientific Advisory Board--has been awarded the 2010 Millenium Technology Prize for his invention and development of dye-sensitized solar cells, known as 'Grätzel cells'.

The Institute for Energy Efficiency is on of three academic centers in the country that focuses specifically on energy efficiency. The three organizations are receiving unprecedented government support and attention from the business community.

The Department of Energy awarded $377 million in funding for 46 Energy Frontier Research Centers across the country, including $19 million to UCSB, to accelerate scientific breakthroughs needed to build a new 21st-century economy.

Plastic solar cells are being studied by the UC Santa Barbara researcher and Nobel Laureate Alan Heeger. The lightweight cells are inexpensive to produce, but so far are too inefficient, converting 6.1% of sunlight to electricity, while traditional silicon cells are 15% efficient.

Leading research institutions from China, India, the UK, and the US are conducting joint research projects in the field of energy-related materials including low-cost organic solar cell research at UCSB

A group of researchers at UC Santa Barbara is leading research efforts into integrated building design, in which active control of indoor airflows could greatly improve the ventilation and efficiency of heating and cooling in buildings.